Day 2, 29 5 2014, Worms to Karlsruhe
It is father’s day in Germany today, or perhaps something to do with Christ, it is not entirely clear. Anyway, it is a public holiday, and people were out in huge numbers.
One man we met said it was a day when fathers everywhere went out and drank a great deal of beer, and so it seemed. We passed numerous huge beer gardens hosting perhaps a thousand people, mostly men, perhaps fathers.
Many of then seemed to get there by bike, as there were vast numbers of bikes in the cities and on the paths, often ridden by people in family groups.
This part of the Rhine Valley is flat and the bike infrastructure is as good as we have seen anywhere.
Because of the holiday, we had a minor glitch in the evening, when it became apparent that the services in the villages were largely shut. So we rode on into Karlsruhe.
The cities here in the Rhine are fantastic. They all have extensive linked pedestrian plazas, streets and adjoining parks. Of course, bikes are allowed in but not cars. On a day like today they are full of people and the atmosphere is joyous and relaxed, a lot of laughing and a lot of beer. We were impressed with the folding beer trailers, pictured here.
I was not looking forward to the ride into Karlsruhe, as on the map it appeared to be a confusing mess of industrial development. As it happened we followed a family on a sealed forest trail for about the last 7Km, right into the heart of the city.
We rode on beautiful sealed well-signed paths all day, except for perhaps 5Km of muddy tracks.
I have commented before on the slightly retentive nature of bike route planners in Germany. They are meticulous, but will go to extraordinary lengths to avoid roads, when it would be much easier to just use a bit of road to link the paths on either side of a village, rather than an extensive tour through the suburbs to avoid traffic.
We checked into a hotel and wandered down town to a festival, ate a snag, drank a beer, and that was that.
112Km for the day.
Roz says amazing breakfast, two ferry rides across the Rhine, some stunning historic towns and an enormous spa bath to complete the day.
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